Summer Transfer Speculation and Shit

[Power n Glory]

He’s out of contract. Is he supposed to stay here for the rest of his career and accept whatever is on the table? He’s honoured his contract and doesn’t have to sign another one. Like it or lump it.

[I am invisible]

I agree and to be honest I think he would go to PSG if not for the top rate of tax, and there is no other big side abroad where he'd get the money.

I don't know why I'm even getting upset by this anyway? We all know what footballers and clubs are like these days. We all know the supporters come about as low on everyone's priority list as it's possible to get. It's just annoying, because a lot of the time it feels like we get caught in the crossfire when players and clubs have their falling outs? It feels like some players pick rivals over other clubs to move to purely to spite their old club, when the reality is I doubt the people who run their old clubs could give less of a shit about where they move on to? The fans are the only ones who care - all the people running the clubs will see is that they've got a massive wage off the wage bill, replaced them with someone younger and cheaper, and will still rake in tens of millions a year in revenue, just for turning up!

[Niall_Quinn]

So if I was a Doctor working for the NHS whose research had saved countless lives, I should feel that I would turn down an offer from a private company for untold financial reward and unlimited research funds because I owe a debt of gratitude to the tax payer?

If you were working for the NHS and had a contract that offered untold financial reward and unlimited research funds (the equivalent of what Sagna earns right now in comparison to a REAL NHS doctor - which is where your argument dies), and you got an offer for even more from a private company and the new role was to destroy the NHS - I wouldn't respect you at all if you took it. However, if you moved to a private company that had no bitch with the NHS then okay, fine, sorry to see you go.

The reason he's a cunt is because he's going to a major rival, to likely sit on the bench. He'd rather sit on the bench for a rival (for a fortune) than play for us (for a fortune).

[I am invisible]

£££

Wow! Looking at those figures, you have to wonder if top 4 even matters that much any more? £62m for finishing bottom - I think that's as much as Man U got for winning it last season?!!

[Niall_Quinn]

And Cardiff, Fulham and Norwich drop to a lower league with a £60mill advantage so the disparity filters down too. Way, way too much money in the top league and nowhere near enough elsewhere. That's what the Premier League has really brought, horrendous imbalance. And the football and players aren't even as good as the blokes who got paid £100 a week to play not so long ago (1960). If this salary cap has been carried forward to today they'd all be on a maximum of £800 per week, inflation adjusted. Rooney is now on £300,000 a week, that's 375 times the rate of inflation for an inferior product and an inferior player.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

He’s out of contract. Is he supposed to stay here for the rest of his career and accept whatever is on the table? He’s honoured his contract and doesn’t have to sign another one. Like it or lump it.

Pretty much...

Flamini did the same once upon a time and he's even back at the club without a whole lot of vitriol from most fans. The club didn't make an offer he was satisfied with.....and they stood firm (as we often do and as we did for age's with Walcott) and didn't want to improve it, so Sagna may have decided to move on. Part company and move on amicably. No shi* has been slung publicly by either side. City aren't even our direct rivals, they are just some team from up north who wear blue with fans who like to jump up and down with their arms linked together. The latest in a line of financially doped clubs... not the first and surely not the last.

Had he joined Spuds, I'd feel differently about it but he hasn't. I'd rather it wasn't a prem club he went to but good luck to him. Moreover, good luck to Wenger replacing him because he will need it. There needs to be an immediate replacement otherwise the criticism that will ensue will be quite justified.

[I am invisible]

Well, this lad Aurier sounds promising at least (from what I've read, anyway)? Supposedly built like an Olympic sprinter, good going forward as well as defending, and can cover LB and CB as well as playing RB. Young and cheap too, so he immediately passes the Arsenal-test.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Let's hope so for our sake. Hope he acclimatises quickly.

[Bergkampwonderland10]

It might be worth raiding a couple of the relegated clubs for squad players? I keep hearing a lot of talk about Cardiff's keeper (Marshall, is it?), and someone like Hangeland could be a decent backup for Mertesacker?

Yes, we definitely need more goals from the wide areas - for me, Walcott's absence has been as much of a problem as out lack of CF options this year, and it's something I don't want to see us suffering from again (especially with so many available options out there at the moment). My other reason for wanting us to get another one or two wide men in is that I think the increased numbers in those areas would solve problems in other areas? For example, if we had 2 good options on each flank, then we could stop using Cazorla as a winger and have him and Ozil as our two options for the play-maker role, and that, in turn, might mean that we can start using Rosicky a little deeper, which might take a bit of the heat off of Arteta, etc. I'm also not sure whether I see Oxlade-Chamberlain staying wide or coming more central int he future, so it gives us a bit more scope to move him around too? I know people will point at guys like Gnabry, but he's only, what, 17 or 18 at the moment - by the time he's seriously knocking at Arsene's door, I expect players like Arteta, Rosicky and Cazorla may well have retired or moved on, so I don't think we need to look too far ahead there. And with someone like Podolski, I see him more as an attacking utility player, who sits between two areas (i.e. between wide attack and CF), and isn't really an ideal wide man.

Hangeland??? He is a terrible player that is just getting worse each season. Caulker is the one we should go for, turning out to be an excellent centre back …as Mr Twitch predicted. And he bought Bale…so I'll give him that

[GP]

as Mr Twitch predicted. And he bought Bale…so I'll give him that

No he didn't.